Servers inserted into a rack are typically contacted via electrical lines from the front and/or from behind (i.e. on the surfaces perpendicular to the insertion direction) for the data exchange and for the power supply. An electrical contacting is effected either with a backplane or midplane in the rack or directly via electrical lines to a further server, a data switching unit (e.g. switch) or to a power supply unit. Since the servers are typically cooled by an airstream in the insertion direction on the rack, the various connections may in some circumstances severely hinder the airflow.
Solutions already exist to minimize the number of connections or the area on the front side and/or rear side of the servers required by the connections by narrow construction. More area for the through-flow of a cooling airstream can be obtained in this way. Further solutions provide for an improved design of the data connections themselves which further reduce the required area. In particular, the use of optical data connections exerts an increasing influence here. However, those solutions allow only a limited improvement in terms of the air throughput in the rack.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a rack, a server and an assembly comprising a rack and a server of the aforementioned type by which an improved cooling effect of servers in a rack is achieved and a data connection with a high data throughput for the data connection of the servers in the rack is nevertheless provided.